Sadomasochism That sadomasochism and homoeroticism often occur together with Nazism in the Holocaust film is a fact that has long been recognized and is frequently observed. Ilan Avisar, in
Screening the Holocaust, traces what he calls the connection of Nazism and "sexual deviance" to Rossellini’s
Open City.
[1] Gerd Gemünden suggests that in 1942, "the association of male homosexuality with sadism and perversion [as in the effeminate portrayal of Heydrich in
Hangmen Also Die] … anticipates postwar films such as
The Damned (Visconti 1969) and
Night Porter (Cavani 1974)."
[2][1] Ilan Avisar, Screening the Holocaust: Cinema’s Images of the Unimaginable (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1988), pp. 134-48
[2] Gerd Gemünden, "Brecht in Hollywood: Hangmen Also Die and the Anti-Nazi Film," TDR 43 (4) (Winter 1999): 65-7; The earliest book in English to conflate Nazism with sexual perversion was Samuel Igra’s Germany's National Vice (London: Quality Press, Ltd., 1945).
Very, very interesting. I sent an email to Scott Lively and directed him to this thread. I hope he stops by and reads everyone's comments. Thanks. For victory & freedom!!!